Graduate Studies

Two MA graduates at Mt Kasigau

Njoroge Gathongo (MA 2012) and Peter Kamau (MA 2013) at Mt. Kasigau.

The Department of Geography offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree. Our rigorous and flexible program provides you with the instruction and guidance leading you to become a professional geographer. The theoretical, methodological, teaching, and practical skills that our MA graduates have developed at Miami University lead them into related employment opportunities, or to funded Ph.D. work in leading programs. Our graduates obtain entry level technical and managerial positions in city, state, and federal governmental agencies, and in a variety of business, industrial, and Non-Governmental (NGO) organizations. Our M.A. program has also prepared students to qualify for admission to a Ph.D. program in geography or a related discipline.

Why choose Geography at Miami University?

Our MA program provides students the choice, flexibility, and training to go on for a PhD or to take a job related to their graduate education.

Our graduates have excelled with either of these two choices:

Those students seeking post-MA employment related to their training have been successful in finding it after graduating. Our recent graduates work in environmental analysis and protection, urban and regional planning, geography-related publishing, and university administration.

Those students choosing to go on for a PhD after their MA have generally received offers that were significantly better than they could obtain with just a BA; in other words: a Miami University MA in Geography provides an important asset that strengthens one’s application to PhD programs. Our recent graduates have received attractive offers from the top PhD programs including the Universities of Toronto, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, and Illinois, as well as UCLA and Ohio State University.

But we know that these two options are not mutually exclusive, so we encourage our MA students to pursue degrees that generate original (and hopefully publishable) research, while simultaneously positioning themselves to be competitive on the job market. This versatility is possible through a combination of self-direction and good advising, strengths of our graduate program.

Personalized mentorship and commitment to success

One of the attractions of our M.A. in geography is that it is a small program with 12-15 students in residence each year. With 14 permanent faculty, the student to faculty ratio of around 1 to 1 provides students with excellent access to faculty. Graduate faculty are strongly committed to teaching, advising, and research collaboration with graduate students.